His Omen and His Soul
by NefariaBlack
Summary: In a world where Bellatrix lived, she hones her strength from the bits of her Master that she has left. SingleParent!AU


**His Omen and His Soul**

Bellatrix casted spell after spell, raising every ward she could think of over the graveyard, making sure that they would not be seen, nor heard, nor sensed by spells, nor disturbed by Muggles. Every day, at dusk, she would walk with her child to the graveyard, followed by the enormous serpent that held a piece of her Master's soul.

Adjusting to his absence had not been easy, and she still dreamed of that last moment with him, just before the battle, and of a different ending to that day. The Dark Lord had kept her in his presence after dismissing everyone else, and held her face in his cold, cold hands. She had looked into his ruby red eyes for one last time, daring to touch his chest, feeling his heart race under the black robes. She could still remember precisely the path of every bluish vein under the eerily pale skin, a sight that had been so alien the first time he disrobed himself in her presence, so different to what he had once looked like, but that had become so familiar, so cherished.

The Dark Lord had sent her away, ordering her to take Nagini with her, telling her to keep their child safe, all the while holding her face, keeping his eyes on hers. He had always known how to play her, pushing her buttons and pulling her strings, and she had revelled in it. He had kissed her for longer than he used to, tasting of goodbye, holding her close in his embrace. She had begged him to stay, to fight by his side, where she belonged, but he had wiped the lone tear that travelled down her right cheek with the back of his index finger.

"You belong by our daughter's side, Bella," he had whispered to her, sounding broken already, "keep her safe, raise her to be the mightiest witch the world has ever seen, and then come back for me. Come back to me, Bella." With that final command, he had let her go, softly pushing at the small of her back, sending her away.

That had been over five years ago. Five long years without his sinewy hands guiding her, wrapping around her, caressing her, burying themselves in her wild curls. She has been so lonely, so desperate to have him back, but it is still too soon. Theirs was a complex relationship, a dark twisted thing, a game of powers, a play on worship that the outsider could never understand. She was his best warrior, his most trusted, his most faithful, and so she had gone back to Malfoy Manor with Nagini floating in her golden bubble behind her. He had given her a piece of his very soul to keep.

She never knew what happened to everyone else, never cared to learn. She had taken Delphini from her crib, wrapping her in her favourite blanket, picking up the small Expanded handbag that had been left ready, and she had walked to the gardens of the Manor, searching for the Thestrals. The sinister creatures had raised their reptilian heads at her sight, shaking their long, silky manes, a sharp contrast to their unhealthy looking bodies, but only two had stayed put. The others had hastily retreated, their hooves muffled by the damp ground.

Bellatrix had mounted one, holding Delphini close. Nagini had slithered up the Thestral's long, spindly legs to coil her massive body around the two of them, her head in the curve of Bella's neck, and the skeletal winged horse had galloped across the lawn, spreading his leathery wings and taking flight with one strong beat. They had travelled from one place to the next once they were on the continent, without any true aim, hunted by Aurors of almost every nation, that never managed to catch sight of them and live to tell, eventually making their way deep into the Albanian forests.

The forests here were dark and sombre, preventing sunlight from reaching the ground, and often spread to the very verge of small settlements, which made their lives easier. Bellatrix had decided to live in the woods, in an old shack that still looked like a ruin to everyone else, but that had become home to the four of them, restored by her magic. Albania was a rather obvious choice, but no one had ever come looking for them. Mad Witch Lestrange and the vicious familiar Nagini were gone in the wind.

The Thestral didn't like following them to the graveyard, often deciding to hunt instead, and Bellatrix could see it up in the sky, drawing wide circles high over the tree canopies, looking for prey in the meadows. Finishing up her wards on the graveyard, Bellatrix called Delphini forward. The happy little girl came running towards her, looking nothing like her or her father.

No one knew of her existence, but she still couldn't risk exposing her parentage with a mere look, so she had trained Delphini to hone her Metamorphmagus' abilities, to master them far sooner than what was to be expected of any child. Bellatrix herself used Polyjuice many times, harvesting hairs from the Muggles she stole from, but Delphini was only allowed to show her true appearance inside their house.

Today, they had walked to the graveyard as a dirty-blonde woman in her thirties, skinny and gaunt, and a little girl with brown hair that fell straight to her shoulders, with freckles and pale blue eyes. Delphini had tufted pants on, which gave her far more freedom of movement than the usual skirts and dresses. Bellatrix didn't like the sight of pants on her child, but she was at liberty to explore her surroundings like this. More important, she was free to run should she need to escape.

Nagini would come later, slithering under the iron fence and around the tombstones, winding her path to the two of them. Bellatrix always felt better when the mighty snake was near. It was the fragment of his soul in her, the familiar presence, if only a shadow of what it used to be. She felt safer when Nagini was near, not for her but for her daughter. Should they be found, Bellatrix would sacrifice herself for them. Nagini could hunt for Delphini and keep her safe in the woods. Nagini could talk to Delphini and tell her of the Dark Lord whom had sired her. Nagini knew enough about their Master to ensure that Delphini would fulfil her destiny. Nagini was the vital part, not Bellatrix. Delphini needed Lord Voldemort's familiar to bring him back, not her mother. Bellatrix missed him immensely, but she would not risk her daughter's mission for a chance to see him once more returned to the living. She would disobey him, only once, but see her daughter succeed for it.

Nagini could always protect herself, but Bellatrix was quite sure that her daughter would unleash all of her power on the poor soul that tried to harm the snake. They were friends of sorts, hissing back and forth, both enjoying the company, but mostly the touch, of the other. They liked to sit by the fireplace, wrapped in one another. Bellatrix often found Delphini asleep on Nagini's coils.

" _Maman_ , can I change back, please?"

Bellatrix was pulled from her reveries by a clear voice, and looked down, to where her six-year-old daughter stood before her, holding two fingers of hers in her small hand. She smiled.

"No, my precious augurey. You know better than that," she replied, caressing her daughter's face, holding her chin to tilt it up to her, "and we have work to do here."

She couldn't quite say when it had happened, but little by little, day after day, her mind had settled after the death of her Master. The first weeks were a blur of small towns, dead Muggles and mauled wizards here and there. Nagini fed on the corpses of their foes, and even the Thestral had eventually developed a taste for human flesh. Delphini was the one that tethered her to sanity during those weeks, and to this day still. The piece of her Master in Nagini was enough to soothe her bleeding heart at night, but only the warmth of her daughter in her arms reminded her of her mission, only Delphini provided her with reasons to stay sane, to not harm the people that followed her any more than necessary. She had wanted to set the world ablaze for destroying her Master once more, but she needed to lay low for his child's sake. So Bellatrix stayed the beast inside her, chained it to the back wall of her mind, took control of every aspect of their lives that she could, and carried on.

" _Maman_! I like my real hair better, and my eyes are prettier than these! Your Polyjuice is wearing off, why can't I change back?"

Though she usually carried herself with a certain solemnity, Delphini was showing her age now, stomping her foot down on the grass, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning.

"Delphie, look at me," Bellatrix said, sternly, "you are far too precious to be careless with your looks. You look too much like me, and your eyes are too much like your father's." Her voice softened at the mention of the Dark Lord. Their child had inherited the same dark eyes he had once had, as well as her wild, curly, black hair. Her skin was pale, and she would grow up to be a classical beauty of old blood, like she had been once, before Azkaban, before the war, when she still had _him_ and he still looked human.

"But can I change my eyes to _Papa_ 's?"

Bellatrix had fought her on that at first, trying to instil the same reverence she felt towards Lord Voldemort into her daughter, but she had soon dropped the fight over _Papa_. Delphini needed not refer to Lord Voldemort as Master or Dark Lord, for she held all the reverence of the world in her big, wide eyes whenever she spoke of _Papa_. _Papa_ she knew, had been the most powerful wizard the world had ever seen, capable of feats unheard of. _Papa_ had cared greatly for her and her mother. _Papa_ wanted to come back to them, and for that she had to work very hard, so that one day she would be powerful enough. Nagini seemed to indulge her on that as well, and Bellatrix suspected that it might be that remnant of him in her that craved it, somehow, so she stopped correcting Delphini.

" _Sûrement_ , _mon petit oiseau_ , but only his eyes, not his skin," she conceded, smiling.

Delphini was far too little to remember him, but she had the ability to search minds, and both hers and Nagini's were at her disposal. She was so very much like him. Bellatrix had cried the first time her daughter called for her, but she had veritably crumbled the night she first hissed for Nagini. She no longer had _him_ , but she had all these little things in Delphini, the comfort of his soul in Nagini; the reasons for her sanity, the things that allowed her to sleep at night, fuelling her dreams while keeping the nightmares at bay.

Her smile only grew has her daughter turned her eyes crimson with a polite " _Merci, Maman_ ". Bellatrix took her hand and walked with her to the furthest end of the graveyard. The sun was quickly disappearing under the horizon, and Delphini's eyes shone like jewels in the light of the dying day.

Every day, at dusk, they walked to the Muggle graveyard. It was old and abandoned, as was the closest village. Here, Delphini had plenty of targets to practice with. She would never have a wand of her own, for she was above them. Her little girl's magic flowed freely through her hands, doing her biding with ease. She needed only learn to control it now, to aim it, which was why they were here.

Once darkness had descended on them, Bellatrix placed her hands on Delphini's shoulders, lowered her mouth to her right ear, and whispered.

"Focus now, Delphie. Take out only one tomb at a time. Break them; throw them to the other side of the cemetery, whatever you wish, but only one at a time. No more."

Delphini took several deep breaths, and Bellatrix felt her pulse slow down through the tip of her fingers, which rested in the groove just behind the child's collarbones. The moon rose just enough to light their surroundings, while Delphini gathered her magic, making the air vibrate around them. She raised her small hands and stood with her palms facing forward. Then, she unleashed her magic all at once.

With a booming sound and a cloud of dust, three tombstones vanished, turned into gravel that spread all over the place. Before Bellatrix could do anything to stop it, she felt her daughter's anger simmer and explode. She casted a shield in the very nick of time, engulfing the two of them in a protective bubble, while a whirlwind of flames washed over the graveyard, setting fire to the few trees that lined the gates.

Delphini screamed in frustration, and proceeded to destroy every single remaining gravestone, blowing a couple up, blasting them to smithereens, while throwing others all the way to the wards, where they rebounded. Some she burned; setting fire to the granite and the marble, which erupted in bright blue flames.

" _Desolée, Maman,_ " she mumbled, in the language they shared, as she shared Parseltongue with Nagini, "will you put them back up, so that I can try again?"

"Are you sure, _petit oiseau_?"

"I want to bring _Papa_ back," she replied, determined, completely certain of her destiny, "and I must get better so he'll be proud of me."

Bellatrix openly smiled, waving her wand in quick, swift motions, putting tombstones back in their place, making them whole again. The ones that burned could not be helped, though. Delphini's Fiendfyre would burn all night, she knew, but not spread beyond the stones.

"Try again, my precious augurey," she said, gesturing to the now standing gravestones.

Delphini looked to the moon and to the night sky above her, letting the stars shine down on her ruby eyes, and then she looked to the stones once more. She raised her hands, but lowered them almost immediately. She hissed a couple of words, a pattern Bellatrix had learned to recognize, and beckoned Nagini forward.

The mighty snake with the molten gold eyes waved her body across the grass, caressing Bellatrix's feet with her head before greeting Delphini. She raised her head from the ground, all the way to the girl's height and nudged her cheek, making her squeal at the cold touch. She coiled her body once around Delphini's legs and observed the graves.

With one hand on the familiar's dark green scales and the other held up in the air, Delphini gathered her magic and then launched it forward, successfully throwing one single stone slab high and far. Then another and another after that. The fourth she blew up, giggling at the sound of gravel falling to the floor.

Bellatrix laughed with her. She didn't bother repairing the stones tonight; she would leave them shattered, and burning, and yards away from where they belonged. She offered her hand to Delphini and together they walked back into the woods.

Delphini asked her if she could change back while still on their way, and she let her. She ran ahead, but not far, for Nagini blocked her path, and Delphini turned to smile at her mother, with her mane of black curls, and the sculpted features of old blood, and the eyes of her father sparkling bright from under heavy eyelids.

Later, lying in bed while Bellatrix read the Tale of Three Brothers to her, Delphini suddenly sat up in bed, tossing her braids over her shoulders and wrapping her arms round her knees.

" _Maman_ , why is it only the four of us? Where are all the other people you knew? Where are _Papa's_ Death Eaters?"

Bellatrix still had to think twice whenever Delphini mentioned the four of them. The Thestral, though unnamed, was seen as part of the family somehow.

"They are gone, Delphie," she said, "one way or another, they are gone."

"But you'll always be here, _Maman_ , won't you?"

Bellatrix put the book aside and pulled her daughter onto her lap, wrapping her arms around her small body, relishing the warmth against her chest, breathing in the smell of soap from her skin.

"You'll always have me, _chérie_ ," she reassured her, thinking on the last words of her Master, "I belong by your side."

Delphini fell asleep in her arms, breathing into the nook of her neck. Nagini climbed up the bed, undulating towards them over the covers. Bellatrix moved to lie down on the bed, setting Delphini by her side on the mattress. Nagini coiled her body around and in between them, as they all liked, and Delphini hissed something in her sleep. Bellatrix hummed when the serpent moved her head to the curve of her neck.

His Augurey would be ready, one day, not so far away anymore. Their Augurey would bring the Dark Lord back, one last time. Until that day, she had his omen and his soul to keep from harm, to cherish, to remain sane for. One day, she would go back to him.

* * *

 _Reviews are always welcomed ;)_

 _Author's Notes: Prompts and Challenges_

 _Assignment 10 Religious Education Task #8: Write about someone finding comfort in something/someone._

 _Advent Calendar – Day 1 – SingleParent!AU_

 _December Writing Club - Character Appreciation 5. [Creature] Thestral; Disney Challenge Themes 6. Temper Tantrums – Alt, write about someone doing something very destructive in anger; Cookie's Cooking Corner 1. Mars: Word Set - red, four, alien, explore; Book Club Nobody Owens: (setting) graveyard, (emotion) lonely, (dialogue) "But you'll always be here, [Name], won't you?"; Showtime 42. Finale B: (word) destiny; Amber's Attic 6. Hopsin: Write about someone changing their appearance; Em's Emporium 3. Prompts: (relationship) parent Lo's Lowdown Character 3. Trinket: write about a bond between a person and an animal/creature; Liza's Loves 9. Alt: Write about a widow._

 _365 Prompts Challenge 34. SingleParent!AU_

 _Winter Bucket List 13. Prompt: (action) throwing something_

 _Wc – 2 922_


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